Nagorno-Karabakh anniversary: Azerbaijan celebrates, Armenia protests

Azerbaijan marked the one-year anniversary of the country’s victory in the six-week battle over Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday with tens of thousands marching across its capital to celebrate the occasion. Scenes were different in Armenia as the day was marked by protests against the sitting Prime Minister.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev declared November 8 as Victory Day to mark the capture of the strategic city of Shusha by the country’s military. The city’s capture forced Armenia to accept a Russia-brokered truce two days later.

“We have restored our dignity. We will live forever as a victorious country and a victorious nation. If any force in Armenia looks askance at us or engages in revanchist tendencies, it will see our fist,” Aliyev said according to the Associated Press.

Demonstrators and military cadets carried a huge 440-meter (1,444-foot) national flag across the capital of Baku as a part of Monday’s celebrations.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

Hostilities that erupted in September 2020 marked the biggest escalation of the conflict in more than a quarter-century. In 44 days of fierce fighting that killed thousands, the Azerbaijani military routed Armenian forces and moved deep into Nagorno-Karabakh.

The agreement that ended the conflict saw the return to Azerbaijan of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh and also required Armenia to hand over all the regions it held outside the separatist region. Russia deployed nearly 2,000 peacekeepers for at least five years to monitor the peace deal.

The peace deal was celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan but sparked months of massive street protests in Armenia against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was accused by the opposition of betraying national interests.

About 10,000 opposition supporters rallied on Monday in the Armenian capital of Yerevan to denounce Pashinyan’s rule.

(With AP inputs)